


Since When Were Things Ever Normal?

by Starwalker165



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Avengers Family, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gun Violence, Hurt Peter, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Peter Parker, Sassy Peter, Spider-Man Interacting with New Yorkers, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-10-30 16:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17831783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starwalker165/pseuds/Starwalker165
Summary: It has been a while after everyone returned from Thanos' snap, everything is back to normal and Peter is friends with all of the Avengers and gets to stay at the tower. Everything is fine until Tony goes missing without any clues that could lead to how and why. It's up to Peter to find out where he went, but by doing so, he discovers a dark secret.





	1. Party at Oscorp

**Author's Note:**

> This is only the first chapter of this fic. I'll try my best to write the other chapters soon! Btw, there are some descriptions of injuries from fighting including blood, but nothing too graphic.

Chapter 1:

Peter’s heart was pounding. He was swinging through New York faster than he even knew he could go. This was one of his most dangerous patrols yet. He swung past an apartment building and waved at a little girl who was looking out the window in awe. The girl smiled brightly and Peter smiled back from inside his mask. 

“How much longer till we’re there, Karen?” 

“Just a few more buildings down, Peter.” The AI responded swiftly. 

After a few more swings, Peter could see the building. It was one of Oscorp’s laboratories. The outside was a cool grey with purple tinted windows. A large light up sign spelled out ‘OSCORP’ in neon purple lettering, and a fire escape staircase lined the side of the building. There were policemen and news reporters surrounding the area. Peter jumped down to ground level and stuck a perfect landing next to a group of police officers. One of them, a woman with a nametag on her badge that read ‘Maguire’ turned around in surprise. 

“Spider-Man!”

“What’s the problem officer?” Peter said in his ‘serious’ voice. 

“We’ve got a hostage situation in the building. A gang of criminals just waltzed in with all kinds of guns and weapons and basically took over the place. Everyone in the building was able to make it out except for seven scientists that work here. They are being held hostage and will be killed if the gang doesn’t receive $2,000,000.” 

“Anything else I should know about?” 

“They have explosives.” The officer said with a sigh.

“Oh, well this will be fun!” He replied sarcastically. “Don’t worry I‘m on it. Just keep negotiating to keep em distracted.”

Officer Maguire nodded and notified her coworkers of Spider-Man’s arrival through her radio. 

“Alright Karen, where are the hostages?” 

“I am detecting seven people tied up in a room on the seventh floor, but it is heavily guarded with armed hostiles. There are also explosives laced around the area. Peter, this mission seems significantly more dangerous than your normal patrols. Would you like me to contact Tony Stark for assistance?” There was a tinge of concern in Karen’s artificial voice.

“Nah, he’s probably busy with meetings right now. Besides, I got this!”

Peter ran up the side of the building until he reached the air vent on the third story. He used a web to rip open the vent and then he crawled in. “Ugh. It’s dustier in here than when Thanos snapped!” To everyone’s concern, Peter often joked about the traumatic memory as a way of coping with it. 

He continued to crawl through the air vents until he reached a room with dim purple lights and a variety of laboratory equipment broken and thrown all over the place. It was full of thugs surrounding a door that lead to where they were keeping the hostages. 

“Karen, activate Enhanced Reconnaissance Mode, I need to hear what they’re saying before i jump in.” The AI followed the order and Peter could hear the conversation the thugs were having. 

“Ay Ron, you find anything on project X?” One man said to his team mate as he walked into the room. “

“Nah, those douchebags that we got trapped in the other room destroyed all evidence of it when we arrived.” 

“Damn! You know, if we wasn’t usin’ these wimps for ransom money, I woulda shot em’ earlier!” 

What the hell is project X? Peter thought. He remembered that Oscorp often reported their own scientific advances publicly. 

“Karen, search the web for any news about project X.” 

“No search results have come up Peter.” It must be a classified project then. He thought to himself. 

“Alright time to crash this party before they get tired of negotiating with the cops.” Peter jumped down from the vent in the ceiling into the middle of the room. “Surprise! Sorry for showing up without an invite!” The men jerked their heads towards Spider-Man with a shocked expression.

“Aw no! Not this idiot!” Yelled a thug as he aimed his rifle at Peter.

Peter dodged the bullets with a few flips and jumps. The shooter grunted and rolled his eyes. 

“Well that’s not the way to treat a guest!” Peter taunted.

“Guest?! More like PEST!” 

The thug cackled at his own joke and soon more men came with their weapons ready to fight. Peter dodged more gunfire and shot a web at a man wielding a gun. The web stuck to the firearm, and he yanked it out of the criminal’s hands. The expression on his face was comparable to a very constipated person.

“Screw you, ya weirdo in tights!” The man yelled. 

“Oh sorry buddy, were you using this? Well you can have it back!” 

Peter swung the gun around and threw it back at the man’s head, instantly knocking him out. He landed against a shelf and a bucket fell off it and landed on his head. Meanwhile, another thug charged at Spider-Man with a metal baseball bat. 

“I’m gonna squash you, you little bug!” 

He furiously swung the bat a few times and landed a hit on Peter’s side on the last swing. The thug grinned with a crazy look in his eyes.

“Ow….You know I’m technically an arachnid!” Peter proceeded to roundhouse kick the guy in the head, knocking him to the floor. “Yeet!”

Another man took advantage of his distraction and shot his gun at Peter . The bullet landed in his left shoulder and blood started to trickle out. 

“Agh! Well, I knew this would be fun.” Peter quipped sarcastically. He webbed the spot where he had been shot to stop the bleeding and continued to fight off the gang. He turned towards the thug that shot him, and webbed him in the face. “Didn’t your mother tell you not to play with guns?” 

The thug released a stream of muffled curses from under the webbing. A few more shots of webbing later and the thug was stuck against the wall. Two of the remaining men shakily aimed their guns and the other two started throwing punches. Peter dodged a kick from one but received a punch in the gut from the other knocking the wind out of him. He gasped for breath and before he got the chance to recover, a man charged at him and pushed him against the wall. 

“Hey, how’s about a time out?” Peter rasped.

The man smiled and pulled out a knife.

“Heh. Your time IS out.” 

He began to swing the knife down but Peter knocked him back with a swift kick to the chest. The man stumbled backwards and fell over a table. One of the gunmen started shooting and Peter was able to avoid most of the bullets with a series of flips, twirls, and dodges, but one bullet landed itself in his thigh. Pain shot up his leg. Well this is going swell, he thought to himself as he webbed up the wound. 

Peter jumped onto the side of the wall and pushed off knocking himself into both gunmen, knocking them out. The last thug put his hand up in the air and took a few steps back.

“Alright man just web me to the wall or whatever, I’m not even gonna try at this point.” 

Peter laughed a little. “Works for me.” 

He shot a few webs, knocking the man into the wall, and glued him there. 

“Alright, time to get to the hostages.” He ran over to the door and shook the handle. When it didn’t open, Peter proceeded to rip the door off its hinges and enter the room. He immediately saw the seven Oscorp scientists tied up in chairs. “Hey! Is everyone alright?!” He ran over and started to untie the hostages.

They all nodded and one said “we’re ok” with a shaky voice. All of them had a mix of fear and relief in their eyes. 

Peter looked around the room and noticed that there were destroyed computers, broken glass, books scattered everywhere and shredded or burned documents all over the floor. The only thing left in tact were two computers with multiple timers on the screen. Neither computer looked like it belonged to the lab. One timer was at seven seconds left. Suddenly, one of the scientists spoke up. 

“Spider-Man! They left activated bombs all over the building! They’re gonna-“

Before he could finish the sentence, a loud explosion could be heard from the floor directly above. Peter could see out the window some of the gang members on the first floor frantically running out. He could also see flames entering the room where he had fought the thugs. 

Some of the scientists yelped and others held their hands over their ears. Peter’s enhanced senses were causing his head to spin like crazy. His ears were ringing, but he had to stay focused.

“Well this blows” Peter smiled a little at his own pun. “Okay, you guys work on disabling the other explosives while I get those other guys out of there!” 

They may be criminals, but Spider-Man wasn’t about to let them die in a fire.

He began lowering the mostly unconscious men from the window with webbing despite the pain from the bullet in his arm. 

“Hope you don’t mind an airdrop!” He yelled to the officers on the ground. 

Officer Maguire looked up in shock at seeing the unconscious men dangling from webs. 

“Well would you look at that.”

Once Peter had all seven thugs lowered into the ground, they were carried away by the police. He saw the flames getting closer and the walls and ceiling start to collapse. He needed to get the scientists out, but they were still deactivating the bombs and there wasn’t enough time to lower them to the ground. Peter looked around for anything that could provide a solution. In another room down the hallway, he saw the fire escape staircase outside a window. Then one of the scientists frantically ran over to him.

“We got all the bombs deactivated, but the elevator’s down, and the stairs are blocked by fire!”

Spidey pointed to the window with the fire escape. “Everyone get out from there, once you’re all out, I’ll follow you down!” As if the building could hear what he said, the ceiling collapsed over where the escape was, and Peter leaped over and caught all the rubble before it could fall down and block the exit. He struggled to lift all of it up, it brought back memories of being stuck under a pile of concrete The Vulture had knocked over him. To make things worse the bullet wounds were screaming with pain and the bruise on his side from the baseball bat was throbbing. He started to panic. But he knew he had to make sure everyone got out alive. Using all his strength, peter lifted up the crumbling ceiling. “EVERYONE GET OUT NOW!” Without hesitation, everyone ran past Peter and started going down the fire escape. Once they were all out, he tried to get the mass of rubble off him, but his knees were buckling and he couldn’t hold it up for any longer. Peter was pinned under a pile of rubble. Again. To make his luck even better, more of the building started to collapse. 

Then everything went black.


	2. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mostly fluff chapter with Peter hanging out with the Avengers, with some Tony angst at the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this week has been way busier than i anticipated, but I finally got chapter 2 finished! This is going to be kind of a mostly fluff piece, just to establish Peter's relationships with the Avengers fam before I get into the main conflict of this story. Enjoy! :-)

Chapter 2:

 

Peter was in a building.  
Beep.  
The building was crumbling.  
Beep.  
Debris was about to fall down on him, but he couldn’t move out of the way. He was stuck.  
Beep.  
He looked down at his legs and saw that he too, was crumbling.  
Beep.  
He watched in horror as his arms and legs slowly became nothing but dust and ash.  
Beep.  
He could feel the dust reaching up to his neck and he looked up to see a large chunk of the building headed straight toward him.  
Beep.  
He could feel it. He could feel his senses screaming that he was about to die. He tried to scream for help but nothing came out. The dust was about to take over and the chunk was about to land on him. He couldn’t breathe.  
Beep….

“GAAH!!”

Peter’s eyes fluttered open. He gasped for breath and felt instant relief that he could feel the air in his lungs. His head pounded and his body felt sore all over. He looked around the room he was in. Several machines with his vitals on screen were making various beeping noises. A pole with an IV was placed next to him. Peter could hear the buzz of the fluorescent lights above him. Everything smelled like chemicals used for disinfectants. He was laying in an incredibly soft bed with just as soft blankets. The room was mostly grey and white, but he could see a blurry, red thing sitting on a table in the corner. Peter’s eyes got into focus, and he could see that it was his suit folded neatly. Am I in the Medbay? Peter thought to himself. But that would mean he was in the Avengers Tower. How’d I get here? Peter struggled to remember what had happened. Suddenly, Peter felt a hand on his shoulder. He flinched a little.

“Kid, are you okay?!”

Apparently, Peter was so busy observing the room in his dazed state, that he failed to notice that Tony was standing beside him. There was clear panic and worry in his eyes. Peter tried to talk, but it came out slurred.

“Mis’r Stark?”

Tony sighed with relief.

“Hey Underoos.”

Tony ruffled his hair, and the pounding in his head went down a little.

“Whaz goin’ on?”

“Well, you almost got crushed by an entire building.”

Peter’s memory came flooding back to him. Peter sat up immediately.

“Oh no...the Oscorp building....is everyone okay?!”

“Oh god, Pete, you really should be asking if you're okay! But yea, everyone is fine and no one was hurt thanks to what you did back there. You did good kid. But I would strongly recommend against you trying anything like that again.”

“Well, spiders do get squashed sometimes.” Peter chuckled a little, but Tony wasn’t laughing, he just sniffed a little.

“Peter you could have died!” Tony’s left arm started trembling and he held it with his right hand.

“Okay, yeah I know, I’m sorry, but I’m okay! Really!”

“Kid, Bruce told me you have multiple broken bones, two bullet wounds, bruises all over, and as a result of that, you’ve been unconscious for almost 2 days.” Tony said with heavy concern in his voice.

“Oh....well, hey! At least I have accelerated healing! I’ll be alright in another day or two!”

Tony facepalmed. “Oh my god, you know, you really are giving me more grey hairs Spider-Boy.”

Peter smiled sheepishly. Tony looked at the floor for a second, then looked up towards Peter.

“Alright, listen, next time things get bad I want you to call me, capisce?”

“Mr. Stark I can—“ Peter started, but Tony cut him off.

“No! Pete this isn’t up for discussion, if the situation is bad, you call me Alright?” Tony wasn’t yelling, but he was speaking a bit louder than he was before. 

Peter tensed a little. “Yeah...yeah okay.”

Tony took a few steps back. He had a brief look of guilt in his eyes and lowered his voice to his previous volume.

“Sorry… didn’t mean to scold you kiddo..”

“What? No, hey, it’s okay! I get it, you’re just looking out for me.”

Tony smiled a little, but he had a desperate and fearful look in his eyes like he was thinking of a bad memory. Peter noticed his left hand trembling again.

“Are you okay Mr.Stark?”

Tony stiffened. “Yeah, I’m fine... Again, you really should be worrying about yourself right now kid.”

Peter knew Tony well enough to tell he was lying. He knew Tony wasn’t exactly the type to talk about his feelings, but he decided to pry anyway.

“Okay, so can you tell me the truth?”

Tony sighed. “Can’t get past ya that easily huh?”

Peter shook his head.

“Well...it’s just...since…” Tony fidgeted awkwardly, which was unusual compared to his demeanor around most people. “Since… you know… Thanos happened…” He paused for a few seconds. His breathing started to get a little shaky. “I promised myself I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you again. I can’t let anything bad happen to you again. You’re like a son to me Peter, I don’t wanna see you get hurt.” Tony’s eyes started to tear up a bit as he remembered the horrible moment when Peter was disintegrating in his arms on Titan. Peter understood. He still sometimes had nightmares of the ordeal and he knew Tony did as well. Especially since it occurred a little less than a year ago. Tony and the others had risked everything to reverse the snap, and saying that he was relieved when Peter came back was a major understatement. Tony rarely ever got emotional in front of anyone, but when it came to Peter…it was harder to hold it in. Suddenly, Tony put his arms around Peter in a hug. It felt good. Peter hadn’t realized how cold it was in the room even with all the blankets. He enjoyed the warmth. Peter hugged him back and squeezed hard.

“Ok…” Peter began. “I promise I’ll call for help next time.”

Tony sniffed again. “I love you Pete.”

Peter was tearing up now too. “I love you too dad.” 

———————-

 

It was morning. Peter was in his room at the tower. It had been a week since he woke up in the Medbay after the situation at Oscorp. Bruce had suggested that Peter stay at the tower until he was fully recovered. With his accelerated healing, Peter was basically fully healed at this point. He planned on going back to his and May’s apartment in a day or two. Peter got up and walked over to the kitchen and common area to meet everyone else for breakfast. He was still in his Star Wars PJs. A few months ago, he would of been embarrassed to walk out in his current attire in front of the Avengers, but after getting closer to them, they were basically family. He didn’t mind if they saw his oversized Darth Vader shirt and goofy pants with light sabers printed all over them. As he entered the kitchen, he could smell breakfast already being cooked. Sam was standing by the stove frying eggs. 

“Well look who decided to wake up!” Sam teased.

Peter smirked. “Well I had to get my beauty sleep.” 

Sam smiled a little and shook his head.

Peter noticed that everyone else was hanging out together in the common area. In the corner of the room, Tony was was tapping away at a tablet screen with a focused look on his face. In one of the white leather chairs that were in the middle of the room, Natasha was reading a Harry Potter book. Clint was looking through the pantry for something while muttering to himself. On the other side of the quartz kitchen counter, Thor was putting pop tarts into a toaster while humming a random song. On the couch that was made of the same material as the seats, Steve was drawing in his sketchbook, and Bruce was dozing off in the seat next to him. Rhodey was looking through his phone, with a charger from the outlet in the light blue colored wall next to him plugged in his phone. Wanda was practicing on her guitar. The large windows let in a massive amount of sunlight that brightened the whole room. The TV had some random movie playing, but no one was paying attention.

“Mornin’ everyone!” Peter beamed.

Everyone looked in Peters direction and greeted him with collective ‘good mornings’ and ‘hellos’, except for Bruce, who was startled out of his nap.

“H-huh? Oh, hi.” Bruce stammered.

“Hey, Sam, isn’t cooking eggs technically cannibalism in your case since you’re The Falcon?” Peter joked.

“Oh hell no, we are NOT getting into that right now.” Sam scooped some eggs into a plate and handed it to Clint. 

“Does this mean I’m a cannibal too?” Clint questioned.

Sam shrugged. “Yeah I guess so.”

Clint took the plate and turned to Thor. “Hey blondie, you want some fried unborn chicken babies?”

“No thank you bird-man, I am fine with this bowl of assorted tart pops.” Thor was holding a large bowl filled with pop tarts. Each one was a different flavor.

“You mean pop tarts?”

“Yes, pop tarts.”

Natasha looked up from the book she was reading. “You know, they’re gonna have to call you the god of diabetes if you keep eating those.”

Thor scoffed and put a strawberry pop tart in his mouth.

“Wait, did you just call him bird-man?” Peter laughed.

Clint rolled his eyes. “Yup.”

Thor snickered.

“Hey Tony, what about you, you want any?” Clint held out the plate of food to him.

“I don’t like being handed things.”

“More for me, then.” Clint sighed.

Peter jumped up onto the ceiling and started scrolling through his IronMan fan blog on tumblr. Clint looked up at him.

“So uh…why do you always go onto the ceiling bugboy? It’s a little weird.”

“Oof, you know I’m technically an arachnid. Also, look who’s talking! You’re always crawling around in the vents!” 

“What? They’re my secret tunnels around this place.” Clint replied with a mouth full of food.

“Both of you are weird.” Sam concluded.

“Well, considering that in this room, there is a man who is eating a huge bowl of poptarts and another man who runs around dressed as the American flag, I think you two fit in just fine.” Wanda added.

“Fair enough.” Replied Clint.

Thor shrugged, and Steve looked at Wanda with a ‘seriously?’ type of facial expression. She whispered “Well it’s true.”

Bruce sat up and looked at Peter with a little concern in his expression. “So how have you been feeling since...uh… the Oscorp incident?”

“Pretty good!”

“Really? No pain anywhere, dizziness, soreness…?”

“Nope!”

“Are you sure? Cuz if anything’s wrong…”

”Seriously, Dr.Banner, I’m okay!”

“Yeah but…”

Tony spoke without looking up from his tablet. 

“Relax Brucie-Bear, the kid’s fine.”

“Y-yeah, ok then..” Bruce seemed flustered and sat back down. Natasha smiled, she was always amused by the way everyone interacted and joked with each other. Rhodey was scrolling through something on his phone and his eyes widened a little. He showed it to Steve who was sitting next to him, and Steve smiled and his eyebrows went up.

“Hey Pete you might wanna get down from the ceiling and look at this.”

Peter jumped down with another perfect landing and walked over to see what was on Rhodey’s phone. What he saw surprised him. It was an ad for Spider-Man action figures.

“No way! That’s awesome!”

“Yeah, people seem to really like you, especially since these are sold out.”

Peter’s jaw dropped. “What?! Holy shit! I gotta tell Ned!”

“Language!” Tony commented.

Everyone immediately looked at Tony with huge grins on their faces. Steve, remembering when Tony teased him for calling him out on his language while on a mission, stood up and turned toward Tony.

“So are we going to acknowledge the fact that you just said language?”

Tony’s face reddened a little. “Oh no, you’re not gonna let me live this down, are you?”

Steve’s smile grew bigger. “No one let me live that down, so no way.”

Clint started laughing. Tony sighed.

“Great, now Legolas is laughing at me.”

Clint scoffed at the nickname. “Bird-man, now Legolas? I’m starting to think this is name calling day or something.”

Peter chimed in. “I’m gonna agree with Katniss Everdeen here.”

Tony smirked. “Nice one kid.”

Clint looked off in another direction like he was staring into a camera on The Office.

“Alright, you know what…”

Clint reached up and removed his hearing aids so he couldn’t hear anything. He then used sign language to say I’m not dealing with this today. Natasha sighed. It was quiet for a little bit, then Steve randomly sneezed, and Peter saw a golden opportunity.

“God bless America.” Peter said with his hand up to his head in a salute.

Tony snorted and started laughing, Natasha was giggling, Bruce snickered, Thor was holding in laughter, Sam face palmed, and Wanda smiled. Clint didn’t hear anything and was obliviously texting. 

“Tony, have you been teaching Parker how to be a smart ass?”

“Ooh Mr.Stark doesn’t like that language Captain.” Natasha taunted.

Tony rolled his eyes.“No Mr.USA, he did that on his own.” He looked at Peter with a thumbs up and a wink.

Peter gave him a thumbs up back. He then sat down at the kitchen counter and started eating breakfast. He observed everyone joking around and chatting with each other. Peter loved spending time with the Avengers, even if all they were doing was teasing each other for fun. Everyone in the room seemed like a family. This felt like home. Peter felt like the luckiest guy in the world to have these people in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Like I said in the beginning notes, the main conflict will continue in the next chapter, so stay tuned. I'm also planning on making a little series about how Peter grew close to each Avenger as well. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to comment! I would really appreciate it!


	3. Something’s Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a long day at school, Peter returns to the tower. But Tony isn’t there???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I’m so sorry this chapter came out so late, I haven’t been able to write for a few days because of some things going on right now. Btw, shoutout to honeyrush for proof reading for me :-)

Chapter 3

 

Peter was sitting in Math class. It had been a long day and he was excited to get out of school. He watched the clock with intensity as the second hand went tick, tick, tick. There was ten minutes of class left. He was so focused on counting the time until he could leave that he didn’t hear his teacher calling his name. 

“Peter!”

Peter jerked his head up. He was taken by surprise.

“U-uh...y-yeah?” 

“Can you answer the question Mr.Parker?”

Peter glanced around the room. Ned shrugged. He must of not been paying attention either. A kid in the back was asleep. MJ was busy drawing Peter’s confused expression. He heard some laughter from the other side of the room and saw Flash and his friends snickering. Great, another thing for Flash to make fun of.

“Um…n-no sir, I’m sorry.”

Mr.Weiner sighed and gave him an annoyed look.

“Hmph. Well, you’re getting points off your daily participation grade for that.” “See class? Let this be an example as to why you should pay attention.” 

Mr.Weiner pointed at Peter and tapped on his desk with the ruler he was holding. Everyone in the class was staring. Peter’s face went red and he lowered himself in his seat. Flash threw a paper ball at him and laughed. Ned shot Flash a mean glare. He reacted by sticking his tongue back at Ned. Now Peter was just more desperate to leave.

“Guess you’re not the smartest in the class, eh Penis?” Flash taunted.

“Don’t you have any other nicknames? Penis Parker is getting a little old.”

“Like your opinion matters.” Flash laughed and rolled his eyes.

Peter tried to keep a poker face in order to contain his embarrassment and anger caused by the teacher and Flash. 

Ten very long minutes finally went by, and Peter basically sprinted out when the sweet sound of the dismissal bell reached his ears. Peter was very excited. He was going to the tower to work with Tony after school. Although Peter went over to the tower to work in the lab and hang out with the Avengers multiple times a week, he still was full of joy every time he went there. It never got old. And to add on to his excitement, it was a rare occasion. Tony was picking him up from school himself. Usually he would swing over to the tower or Happy would pick him up, but this was one of the rare occasions where Tony would come. Peter loved it when Tony came to pick him up. He didn’t know why, but something about the rarity of it made Peter look forward to it more.

Peter walked down the hall with Ned and MJ. He and Ned chatted happily about the next Star Wars and Star Trek movies that were rumored to be coming out the next year. MJ chuckled as she observed their conversation with amusement. 

“You guys are such dorks, you ever think about reading a book for once?”

Ned scoffed. “Don’t you ever watch any movies for once?”

“Of course I do. But I also read books.” MJ replied smugly. She then turned towards Peter.

“What about you, Spider-Man?”

“Well, I started reading the Harry Potter series.” Peter said with a shrug.

“Since when did you read Harry Potter?” Ned questioned.

“Since Nat recommended them to me.”

“Wait, ‘Nat’? Like, Black Widow? Black Widow reads Harry Potter?!”

“Yeah, she reads a lot of books in her free time.”

MJ smirked. “You really like hanging out with the Avengers, huh?”

Peter’s face turned a little red. “W-well yeah it’s great!” 

MJ chuckled a little at Peter’s sudden awkwardness.

Ned looked at him with awe. “It must be so cool seeing the Avengers all the time.”

Peter nodded and smiled. He was about to take another step when the ringing sensation of his Spider Sense started going off. He turned around but he was too late. Flash came up and pushed him into the wall he was walking next to, causing him to drop his books all over the floor. Flash’s entourage all laughed.

“What the hell, Flash?!”

Flash mocked him by repeating his words in a high pitched voice.

“‘What the hell, Flash?!’ Ha! You should hear yourself! That’s what you get for lying about your stupid internship and being friends with the Avengers!”

“He’s telling the truth!” Ned snapped.

“Psh, oh yeah, of course you believe Penis, you’re too dumb to know when he’s lying to your face.”

MJ suddenly spoke up. “Why are you calling him Penis Parker when you’re the one being a dick? And you really shouldn’t be calling anyone dumb, considering your own intelligence.”

Flash’s entourage all went ‘Ooooo’ in unison.

“Oh shut up, MJ.”

“ ‘Shut up’? Is that really the best you can do, Mr.Thompson? And by the way, only my friends call me MJ. You are only allowed to refer to me as Michelle.”

Flash had a brief look of embarrassment for a split second, then rolled his eyes. 

“Whatever, lets go guys.”

Flash walked past MJ, and his group of friends followed him. MJ and Ned bent down to help Peter pick up his belongings off the floor. Peter was glad to have friends like them.

“Thanks guys.”

“No prob, Pete.” MJ said cooly. 

Ned was fuming. “God, why does Flash have to be such an asshole?!” 

MJ shrugged. “He’s probably just jealous that Peter’s one of the smartest guys in our classes.”

Peter blushed. “W-What? No! I’m not—“

Ned cut him off. “Hey, don’t try to be humble here! You’re amazing! With or without Spider-Man!”

Peter blushed even more and scratched the back of his head.

“Oh this is so sweet, I think I’m getting a cavity.” MJ teased.

Peter and Ned laughed together as they continued to walk out of the school for dismissal time.

 

————————-

 

It was getting a little late. Peter had been standing outside the school waiting for Tony to pick him up for heaven knows how long,and he was starting to wonder if he would ever come. Not only that, but he had to stand under the overhang since it was raining. A lot. Maybe he got caught up in a meeting or something and forgot? Peter wondered. He called Tony on his phone. 

Brrriiinnnggg...  
Brrriiinnnggg...  
Brrriiinnnggg...

No answer.

Tony’s voicemail message started playing.

“Hey, this is Tony Stark’s personal number, if I don’t know you, piss off, if I do, sorry I can’t answer, I’m probably either passed out, working, or doing something stupid. Leave a message! Or not, I’m not your babysitter, you do what you want.”

The robotic answering machine voice followed.

“At the tone, please record your message. When you are finished recording, either hang up or—“

 

Peter hung up on the voice. He thought about calling May, but he remembered that she was working late today. He knew she would leave work to come pick him up, but he didn’t want to make her do that. Peter couldn’t call Happy either, because he was on a two week vacation since Tony said he ‘needed to relax for once in his life’. This was why Tony was supposed to pick him up in the first place. After another ten minutes, Peter concluded that he would have to swing over to the tower. He ran over to the nearest alley, and hastily slipped into his Spider-Man suit. Once it was on, he ran up the building and began swinging his way to the tower in the pouring rain. 

 

——————————-

 

After swinging around New York in the heavy rain, Peter finally made it to the Avengers Tower. It was freezing. He was desperate to get inside and wrap himself up in the Spider-Man themed blankets in his room. Peter didn’t want to have to wait to go through security, so he crawled up the tower until he reached a window, and looked inside. It was Thor’s room. The walls were painted in a bright happy yellow with several Asgardian trinkets hung up on them. The desk, chair, dresser and bed were all mahogany with metallic gold accents. There was a shelf with a few books and an opened box of Pop Tarts. In the corner, Thor’s armor was placed on an armor stand. Stormbreaker was propped neatly on the table next to it. Peter could see Thor in his casual grey sweatpants and the Star Wars T-Shirt he had given him for Christmas. He was sitting on the chair fiddling with a Rubix cube. Even though Thor always forgot to lock his windows, Peter decided it would be best to knock on it instead of just crawling in. He tapped on the glass with his knuckles. Thor jumped a little and dropped the Rubix cube. He looked around in confusion until he saw Peter at the window and he went and opened it. 

“Ah, man of spiders! You startled me a little!”

Peter crawled inside shivering. He was dripping water all over the floor, but Thor didn’t seem to mind.

“Sorry! I was kinda desperate to get inside.” Peter pulled off his mask and water flung everywhere. His curly hair was plastered to his forehead with water.

“It is fine, young spider, welcome back!” A huge, friendly smile adorned his face as he gave Peter a bear hug. When he let go, he frowned a little.

“You are freezing! Why on earth were you out in the rain?! Banner said you are unable to maintain normal body temperatures because of your spider DNA, so it’s dangerous for you to be too cold.” Thor reached into the dresser and pulled out a sweater and draped it over Peter’s shoulders. It was way too big on Peter, but really warm.

“Well, Mr.Stark was supposed to pick me up from school today, but I guess he forgot.”

“Well, that is unusual for him to do, Tony never forgets things, especially when you are concerned.” 

Peter shrugged. “I guess it’s just a weird day today, huh?”

“I do not know, but we should probably get you into some dry clothes before you turn into a frost giant.”

Peter wasn’t exactly sure what a frost giant was, but he guessed that the name was pretty much self-explanatory. Thor opened the door for him and Peter thanked him. Thor smiled, nodded his head and followed Peter out. He walked down the hallway to where his room was, and Thor went to the common area to watch a movie with the others. It was a bit of a tradition at the tower to get cozy and watch movies when it was raining really hard. He walked into his room and took in the familiarity of it all. The walls were white, but they were covered in several Spider-Man posters along with a few Iron Man, Star Wars and Star Trek ones. He had also hung up a few fan drawings kids had given him on patrols. Blue and red fairy lights surrounded the top perimeter of the room. His bed sheets and pillows were all Spider-Man themed (Peter was still surprised that they sold those). There was a desk with a few gadgets, tools, web shooter prototypes and blueprint designs all over it. In the corner was a small fish bowl with a little red beta fish swimming around happily. Peter still had to decide what to name the fish. He took a pinch of fish food and sprinkled it into the bowl. The fish swam up and snatched it in an instant.

“You must of been hungry, weren’t you?”

The fish looked up at him as if to say ‘Ya think?!’ Peter smiled a little and walked over to his dresser. He picked out a pair of navy blue sweatpants and a long sleeved Stark Industries shirt. He reminded himself to give Thor his sweater back later. Peter got dressed and continued to walk into the common room. Steve and Sam were sharing a bowl of popcorn and Wanda was using the remote to flip through channels while Clint and Natasha argued over what to watch. Thor waved at Peter and he waved back. He noticed that Pepper was here too. Everyone was here. 

Except Tony.

Pepper looked up and saw that Peter walked in. She smiled and got up to to greet him. 

“Peter! How are you?”

“I’m good, how are you?” 

“I’m fine….” She started to frown a little. “Are you alright? You look really pale, and you’re shivering a lot. And why’s your hair wet?”

“Uh, well, I kinda had to swing over here in the rain.” Peter tried to sound nonchalant, but Pepper still seemed worried.

“What?! Did Tony forget to pick you up?!”

“U-uh, well…”

“Oh my god, you gotta be kidding me….” She put her hand on his forehead for a few seconds. “God! You’re freezing! Hold on a sec, I’ll be right back.”

As Pepper walked out of the room, Peter could hear her mutter to herself, “Unbelievable…”

Now that Peter thought about it, it was really strange for Tony to not pick him up from school,and to not be here at the tower on one of their lab/hangout days. 

“Hey, has anybody seen Tony today?” 

Everyone looked at each other waiting for someone to say something. After a few moments, Steve spoke up.

“Maybe he’s working right now?”

“No he takes off from work early on days where Peter’s supposed to come.” Natasha replied.

Peter questioned them again. “Well, when was the last time anybody saw him?”

“Last time I saw him was three days ago. He was working on something in his lab.”

Three days ago?! Peter started to get a little concerned.

“Has anyone else seen him in the last three days?” Peter started fidgeting with the fabric of his shirt.

Just like before, everyone looked at each other for an answer, but no one provided one.

“Ah, don't worry bout’ it Pete, I’m sure he’s fine, just probably held up by something. Besides, he’s Iron Man for God’s sake, what could happen?

Peter wasn’t exactly reassured. Whether it was his Spider-Sense, or just normal anxiety, he had a bad feeling about this.

Peter could hear the sound of footsteps coming in. Pepper appeared with some blankets and a mug filled with hot chocolate. She handed the mug to Peter and wrapped him in the blankets. 

“Here sweetie, you gotta warm up before you get sick.”

“Wow, thanks Ms.Potts!”

Peter took a sip of the hot chocolate. It was delicious. It even had little marshmallows in it. Peter continued to take more sips and he didn’t feel cold anymore.

“You know you can call me Pepper, right?”

Peter shrugged. “Well, yeah, but I’m just really used to calling people Mr and Ms.”

Pepper sighed. “Alright, whatever is fine with you.” She smiled and ruffled his hair.

Just like Tony and Aunt May, Pepper was like a parent to Peter. And speaking of Tony, Peter decided to ask Pepper if she had seen him lately.

“Hey have you seen Tony in the past three days?”

“Well, I just got back from a business trip I’ve been on for the past few days, but the last time he called me was three days ago. Why?”

“I haven’t seen him in a while, and he didn’t pick me up from school or answer the phone, so I asked everyone else if they’ve seen him but…” 

Pepper frowned. “That’s… weird, let me try calling him.”

Pepper took out her smartphone and dialed Tony’s number. Just like when Peter had called him, it rang for a bit, and went straight to voicemail.

Steve sat up. “Is everything alright?”

“Apparently my fiancé is playing hide and seek.” 

She put her phone back in her pocket and put her hair in a ponytail.

“Alright, you know what, I’m gonna go check his room.”

Pepper walked out of the common area and into a hallway that lead to the elevator. Peter was getting nervous. He started to wonder if something might of happened. It’s just my anxiety getting the best of me. Peter thought. He’s fine, he’s probably just resting after working in the lab without sleeping for a long time. He didn’t really believe himself, he was just trying to calm down his nerves. Peter knew it was unlikely that anything bad would happen, but he just had a strange feeling about this.

Suddenly he looked up and saw that Wanda was standing next to him. She had a look of concern in her eyes. He wondered if she could hear his thoughts. 

“Hey, don’t stress about it, nothing can happen to him, the tower is secure, and if anything did happen, FRIDAY would have said something.”

Peter nodded. “Yeah you’re right.”

Pepper walked back into the room. Her pace was faster than before.

“He’s not in his room.” She stated.

Peter’s worry grew a little. He knew one last place he could check.

“I’m gonna go to the lab.” He said bluntly. 

Peter put the half-consumed cup of hot chocolate on the counter and walked out of the room into the hallway leading to the elevator. He pressed the button and the doors opened immediately. He stepped inside the brightly lit elevator. There were mirrors on all sides of it. Peter looked at himself. He really did look pale! Not to mention his curls were sticking out in all directions. He pressed the button that lead to the lab on the top floor. A faint whirring noise could be heard, and Peter could feel it as the elevator started to ascend. He was already imagining what he would see in the lab. Tony hunched over a table working on some new gadget surrounded by several blue glowing holograms with blueprints and designs on them. U would be nearby, like a puppy watching it’s owner work, and Dum-E would knock over something on a table, causing Tony to turn around and scold him. Peter decided he should tell FRIDAY to notify him he that he was coming up.

“Hey Fri?”

No answer. That was weird.

“FRIDAY….? You there?”

“Hskkanhdgg…...ee… lljwklpppbnampp.” The AI replied.

“What the hell?”

“Bskshuuiokp….dardfve….bbqkoqllwopuey.”

FRIDAY continued to make strange noises. But it was impossible for her to be malfunctioning! Tony’s AIs were always working. And if they had any kind of bug or glitch, Tony would of caught it. The only explanation Peter could think of was that maybe Tony was screwing around with her code for some reason....which meant he was in the lab! Peter sighed in relief. I knew I was overreacting. He thought to himself. 

The whirring noise stopped and the elevator made a brief ‘ding’ noise to indicate that it reached the top floor. The doors opened and Peter stepped out. 

Peter froze at what he saw.

 

All of Tony’s gadgets, tools, and supplies were thrown all over the floor. A puddle of a greenish looking chemical was in the middle of the room. A computer screen was completely shattered. Pieces of the Iron Man suit were thrown all over the place. There was a large dent in the back wall, and splattered all over one spot on the floor was what looked like….blood?! 

Peter’s Spider-Sense screamed in his head. His hair stood up on the back of his neck and his heart was beating so loud that it was all he could hear. He had no idea who or what could have done this, but he knew one thing for certain.

Something terrible has happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh lordy, I love MJ sm. And IronDad is always gonna be my favorite but ThunderDad makes my heart happy. Hopefully I’ll get chapter 4 out soon. Thank you so much for reading!


	4. The Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter’s anxiety is through the roof after finding out something bad happened to Tony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Yelling in Mr.Krabs’ voice while playing a cowbell loudly) CHAPTER 4!!!! GIVE IT UP FOR CHAPTER 4!!!!!

Peter wanted to throw up.

Tony wasn’t here.

And here Peter was, in the one place where he and Tony had bonded together the most, the one place that was always familiar to him, the one place that he participated in so many experiments and projects, the one place that always took his breath away no matter how many times he saw it, the one place that always had a sense of home to it, and it was now the scene of some possibly horrible crime.

 

And his dad is the victim.

 

Peter knew that Tony was often messy with the way he organized things in the lab, but there was no way that this destruction was caused by Tony. Even considering the mess that was always made when something they were working on exploded or went wrong somehow. He didn’t know what to do. What could of happened here?! Was this some kind of sick joke? Or a nightmare? 

Peter was shaking. A lot. And he felt like his blood was colder than ice. But now it wasn’t because of him being out in the rain. This was fear. Fear that something happened to Tony and he might never see him again. What if he was trapped somewhere? What if he was hurt? What if he—

 

What if he was dead?

 

No! He couldn’t think like that! Peter told himself that he had to still be alive. Tony had been through so much, including defeating Thanos! Someone as strong as him couldn’t be killed easily. 

But that didn’t stop Peter from panicking.

He backed away from the frightening scene and pushed the call button on the elevator. The doors opened, and he stepped inside and started heading back to the common room to tell the others. The whirring noise of the elevator was joined by the sound of his heart beating. Peter stepped out of the elevator and started walking down the hallway. With each step, his heart beat was getting louder and louder. Soon it was pounding in his head like someone was hitting his brain with a hammer. A ringing sound filled his ears and the bright lights of the building started to burn into his eyes. Peter gripped the bottom fabric of his shirt and squeezed so hard his knuckles were white. 

I can’t lose him.  
I can’t lose someone again.

Peter felt a strange pain in his chest. He couldn’t breathe. He gasped a few times but it didn’t feel like it was helping. All that was going through his mind were horrible things that could of happened in that lab. He had to do something. He had to find Tony. After Tony had done everything in his power to rescue Peter and the others from Thanos, the least he could do was do everything he could to find him. 

Peter reached the common room doors and walked inside. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was going to say, but he spoke anyway.

“Um….guys….s-something h-happened….”

It was hard to talk, Peter’s chest still hurt and he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs. Everyone stood up at the sight of the terrified expression on Peter’s face. Natasha and Steve rushed over to him.

Natasha spoke first.

“What do you mean? Where’s Tony?”

“The lab….it’s….everything….broken…..Tony….”

Peter couldn’t get a sentence out. His dizziness, trembling, and inability to breathe normally caused everything he wanted to say come out all broken and jumbled. 

Steve put his hand on Peter’s shoulder and looked at him with concern.

“Woah, woah! Take it easy son, slow down and tell us what’s going on.”

Peter took a deep breath and continued.

“I walked into the lab and I saw that he wasn’t there, and there was blood, and everything was broken and…” 

The room started spinning around him. He blinked a few times trying to get a hold of himself. Soon he saw the ground moving up towards him, and felt hands lifting him away from it. All the sounds he could hear were muffled. Someone was talking but he couldn’t register what they were saying. Next thing he knew, he was being lowered onto the couch. Everything felt weird. What was going on? Peter felt tired. Between school and Spider-patrol, he hadn’t gotten much sleep in a while. It was so tempting to close his eyes. Maybe just for a few seconds…..

 

——————————-

 

Natasha was worried. Very worried. Peter walked in looking like he had witnessed a murder, and next thing she knew, he had an anxiety attack and was now passed out on the couch. Steve had to catch him before he fell to the floor. 

“What the hell is going on?”

Bruce spoke up. “I think whatever he saw caused so much anxiety that his enhanced senses overwhelmed him.”

Steve turned to Natasha. “He said something about the lab and blood, someone’s gotta go there and see what’s going on while I make sure Peter’s okay.”

“I’m on it.” Natasha said.

She walked out of the room the same way Peter went in and walked over to the elevator. When she reached the lab, she suddenly understood why Peter was so shaken. Just by looking at the place, she knew that something bad had happened. She felt guilty. She should of noticed something was wrong after Tony hadn’t shown his face in three days. But this wasn’t the first time Tony had gone missing. The man was always finding himself in danger. Natasha couldn’t ask FRIDAY to get help since she was disabled. Fortunately, she knew what to do. She pulled out a device and pressed a button. It was a communication device for the rare occasion that anything happened to anyone in the tower. Although she never thought she would use it. 

“This is agent Romanoff. The tower has been compromised.”

 

——————————-

 

Peter woke up. He was confused for a few seconds. This doesn’t look like my apartment room? He thought. He realized he was in his room at the tower. He could hear some people talking from another room. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they didn’t sound like familiar voices. What was going on?

 

Tony!

 

Peter remembered what happened. He ran into the common room to tell the others something happened to Tony and—I must of passed out, he realized. He felt immediate embarrassment at fainting in front of everyone, but he was more worried about Tony than embarrassed. He ran back into the common room to see two men and a woman. All three of them were wearing the S.H.I.E.L.D uniform—a navy blue jumpsuit with a black vest and utility belts with several weapons and tools on it. The S.H.I.E.L.D logo was on the back of the vest. One man was standing next to the woman writing down something on a notepad. The woman was talking to Natasha. The other man seemed to be acting as a guard. He spotted Peter and approached him.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Peter froze for a second and spoke.

“Uh, I’m—“

Natasha cut him off.

“This is Peter, I’m sure you’re already aware of who he is.”

The man nodded his head and went back to his original position. The woman turned around and walked over to Peter.

“Hello Peter Parker, I’m Agent Amari. It’s good that you finally woke up. I’ve been meaning to ask you a few questions. I am conducting an investigation on Mr.Stark’s disappearance.” 

She looked very serious. It made Peter a little nervous.

“Uh...ok…”

“And I understand that you are the vigilante, Spider-Man, correct?”

“Wait, S.H.I.E.L.D knows who I am?!”

“Of course we do, S.H.I.E.L.D monitors all people with any kind of abnormal abilities. We just kept our distance until now. Now can I start questioning you?” She seemed impatient. Peter nodded his head.

“I need you to take these questions very seriously. We need to know as much as we can about what Mr.Stark did before he disappeared. Understand?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Good. Now when was the last time you saw him?”

“Last week when I came over to work in the lab with him, but the last time anyone else saw him was three days ago.” 

The man next to her continued to write down details of the conversation in his notepad.

“And do you know of anyone who might be interested in harming him?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure there’s a lot, considering he’s Iron Man and all, but no one in specific I can think of.”

She nodded and pushed up her black-framed glasses. 

“And are you aware of any secret plans or trips he might of had? Like a way of running away to escape his current life and start over?”

Peter almost felt insulted at the suggestion. “What?! No! He wouldn’t do that! He wouldn’t just abandon everything!”

“Please calm yourself Mr.Parker, I am just asking the necessary questions for a missing persons case. Have you noticed anything peculiar in Mr.Stark’s behavior in the time before he disappeared?”

“No, everything was fine! I haven’t noticed anything wrong.”

Agent Amari continued to ask Peter various questions, and he answered accordingly. The entire time she kept the same serious, determined facial expression. But she also seemed a little impatient. She was like that incredibly strict teacher in your school that all the students were afraid of. After Agent Amari was done asking questions, she handed Peter a small card that read ‘AGENT ERIN AMARI’ in silver letters with a number and email below it. It had the shield logo on the back.

“If you discover anything that would be useful to this investigation, contact me immediately.”

Peter was a bit surprised. “Wait, S.H.I.E.L.D agents have business cards?”

Agent Amari rolled her eyes for a split second. “Yes, we have contact information for communication purposes. And by the way, you are to contact me ONLY for issues related to the investigation.”

“Yeah, of course.”

“And please try to stay OUT of this investigation, we don’t need any extra assistance and we don’t want any outside interference. And we don’t need Spider-Man. Leave it to the professionals please. The contact info is only for the situation where you happen to stumble across something important or remember something that you forgot to tell me during the questioning.”

Peter kept a poker face to hide his frustration. He was a little nervous around Agent Amari at first, but now he was just plain annoyed with her. Spider-Man could help! He had helped NYC police find missing people before! And this wasn’t just any random person, this was Tony! What was she expecting him to do? Sit around and wait while his father figure was in danger? Although he didn’t like it, Peter realized it probably wasn’t the best idea to disobey a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Especially since the last time he didn’t follow someone’s directions, he ended up getting his suit taken away.

“That will be all. Thank you for your time.” She concluded.

Agent Amari walked out of the room and the other two agents followed her. Peter looked at the clock. It was still pretty early. Fortunately, it was a Saturday, so he didn’t have to worry about school. He decided to head back to his apartment. Peter didn’t want to be in the tower. It didn’t feel right with Tony being missing. It was also unsettling to see S.H.I.E.L.D agents coming in and out, treating the place like a crime scene. Except it was a crime scene. This whole situation was stressing him out. A lot. Maybe it would do him some good to get out for a while and try to calm himself down. There was nothing he could do to help Tony, so he might as well do some patrolling in order to help some other people. He turned around to get his suit from his room, when Natasha stopped him.

“Hey, before you go, are you okay? I know this must be hard for you.” Her eyes showed genuine concern in them. 

Peter tried hide his worry. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me.” He said with a slight smile. He tried to sound optimistic, but his tone fell flat. Peter continued to walk out before Natasha got the chance to say anything else.

Peter put on the suit, then slipped on his mask. 

“Hello Peter, you seem distressed, are you alright?”

“I’m okay Karen, I just need to go clear my head for a while.”

He opened the window and back flipped out. As he fell, the air rushed against his mask. He was weightless. He felt like he was flying! No matter how many times he went out as Spider-Man, he was still filled with the same feeling of freedom each time. When Peter Parker wasn’t doing so well, all he had to do was slip on the mask and Spider-Man made him feel better. Especially since he was helping other people. Not to mention he loved the thrill of swinging.

Peter was now getting close to the ground. He shot a string of webbing and it latched onto the nearest building. He swung himself up into the air and was now above the height of a few rooftops. He continued to swing around New York as he did normally. He felt okay for the first few minutes of swinging, but then dark thoughts started to invade his brain.

 

What if they never find him?

What if he’s hurt?

How did he disappear like this?

Who could of done this?

I lost my parents…

I lost Uncle Ben…

What if I lose Tony?

 

Abruptly, Karen interrupted his thoughts.

“Are you sure you are alright? Your heart rate has gone up significantly.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine Karen. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Well, it is in my programming to worry about you, you know.”

Peter smiled a little.

“Yeah, I know.”

While in mid-swing, Peter heard a loud voice yelling from an alleyway.

“Hand over all your valuables, ya old prune!”

Another voice spoke.

“And don’t forget your wallet!”

Peter looked down and saw a group of six muggers surrounding an old man. The old man was wearing brown sunglasses, a collared shirt, and had a white mustache. He heard the click of the safety catch of a gun being turned off. Peter immediately jumped into action. He swung over to where the muggers were standing and landed in between the old man and the thug holding the gun.

“Hey buddy! Y’know, it’s really impolite to not say ‘please’ when you ask for something.”

The old man interrupted. “Ooh, you punks are screwed now!”

The thug stood there speechless for a few seconds, then his face wrinkled into an angry frown and he fired the gun. Peter pushed the old man hard enough to keep him out of the way of the bullet, but not hard enough to hurt him. The bullet skimmed past Peter’s shoulder leaving a small rip in the fabric of his suit, and some blood coming out of the tear made in his skin.

“Yeesh, that was pretty close man, maybe you should actually aim next time.” 

“And maybe you should piss off!”

“And maybe you shouldn’t be threatening people with guns, you wacko! But then again, you don’t seem like the kind of person who would have anything better to do.”

All six muggers came running at Peter. He shot a web at the one holding the gun, causing his arm to get stuck to the wall. Peter then webbed his other arm to secure him in place. He shot a web upwards and used it to swing himself feet-first towards the nearest thug. He used his feet to hit him right in the stomach, knocking him backwards. Another mugger tried to throw a punch, but Peter ducked his head out of the way, and roundhouse kicked the man in the head. Peter continued to fight off the rest of the thugs easily thanks to his Spider-Strength. Soon there was only one thug left. The thug began to run at Peter with a knife in his hand. Peter was about to web up the hand holding the knife when suddenly, the old man took a pair of brass knuckles out of his pocket and punched the thug in the side of his head. The thug was knocked out. 

“Woah, dude that was sick!”

The old man laughed. “Well, thank you for the help Spider-Man! You know, it’s good that you’re out here protecting folks, you have a good heart.” He poked Peter right where his heart was located.

“Aw, thank you sir, have a good day!” 

Peter shot a web up into the air and swung away. The old man yelled something out to him.

“Excelsior!” He said happily as he put his fist with the brass knuckles up in the air triumphantly.

Peter wasn’t quite sure why, but something about the old man made him feel like he was an old friend, like somebody that he’s known all his life. A huge smile formed under his mask. Peter continued to swing around, looking for more crime to stop.

 

——————————-

 

After about four hours of patrol, Peter returned to his apartment. After the incident with the old man, Peter had stopped to take a picture with a little girl and some of her friends. He had also stopped a small robbery at a convenience store. Although Peter felt satisfied with today’s patrol, the claws of fear and anxiety were still sinking deep into his mind and they wouldn’t let go. Peter slid open his bedroom window and crawled inside. The smell of burning meat hit him like a slap to the face. The bedroom door was open and he could see Aunt May carrying some bags of take out food from his favorite Thai restaurant. There was smoke coming out of some charred, black substance in a pan. Peter guessed that was where the smell was coming from.

“Hey May.” 

May turned around to see Peter coming in through the window. 

“Oh hey sweetie! I picked up some Thai food for you!”

She tried to wave the smoke coming out from the kitchen away.

“Yikes, that chicken did NOT go as planned.” 

She smiled and laughed a little. Peter gave a half smile. He was trying to act as upbeat as he did normally, but he couldn’t hide his worry. He decided he should probably talk to May about the situation. Before he could begin talking, May noticed something was wrong with his demeanor.

“Hey, is everything okay? You look really stressed.”

Peter inhaled for a few seconds. “Um...well...no. No, no I’m not. Look....some-something happened to Mr.Stark.”

May’s eyes widened a little and she frowned. 

“What?” 

“Everyone said they hadn’t seen him in a few days so I checked his lab to see if he was there and…..” 

Tears were starting to form in his eyes. He kept looking at different objects in the room and wouldn’t meet her eyes. He continued to talk but his voice wavered.

“Everything in there was smashed l-like there was some kind of struggle, and there was blood in there. I don’t know what happened, but they can’t find him, and something really bad happened I know it, and he might be hurt and, I don’t know what to do, and I don’t wanna lose someone again! And—“

Tears were now falling from his face. May immediately wrapped her arms around him. She rubbed his back as he sobbed. 

“Hey….look, I’m sure everything will work out. He’ll be okay. Tony’s been through a lot of stuff. He’s pretty tough. And so are you. We just have to remain hopeful that they’ll find him.”

“I know, but I just can’t help but feel like something really terrible happened to him...May, he’s…...he’s like a dad to me….I can’t….”

He tried to continue talking, but he couldn’t keep himself together. Every time he tried to talk his voice would crack and he kept sniffling. 

“I understand.”

May hugged him tighter and he hugged her back. By now, Peter’s eyes and face were both red and blotchy, but at least now he was here with May. She always knew how to make him feel better. They both stayed there for a while as May comforted Peter. 

“You know, you’ve been out Spider-Manning for a while. Maybe you should eat something. Especially with your speedy metabolism and all.”

“Yeah….ok.”

 

——————————-

 

Peter had spent most of the weekend either spending time with May or hanging out with Ned. MJ was sick and wasn’t able to hang out. Peter had texted Agent Amari every morning asking about Tony. The first time she just told him to be patient and that she would notify him of any progress. The second time she just left him on read. By the time Peter woke up on Monday, it was all over the news that Tony Stark had gone missing and that foul play was suspected. Peter deleted the news app on his phone and avoided all the T.V.s. He didn’t want to be reminded of something he couldn’t do anything about. He was worried enough already. There was some talk of it at school, and MJ wasn’t able to make it to school due to her sickness, but other than that, the day went on normally. By now, it was lunchtime and Peter had just sat down with Ned.

“So….how you holding up?”

“I’m fine.” Peter replied in a dull tone.

Ned could tell he wasn’t ‘fine’.

“Is there anything I can do?”

“No...Ned, it’s fine. I’m okay.”

Ned frowned and put his hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“Well there’s gotta be something I can do! You’ve been acting really sad and stressed lately and I’m worried about you!”

Peter’s face turned a little red. 

“Heh...well, thanks man, but I don’t think there’s anything you can—“

Peter’s Spider-Sense started creating a ringing sensation in his ears and the hair on the back of his neck stood up straight.

“HELLOOOOOOO PENIS PARKER!!!!”

Flash ran up behind Peter and smacked the back of his head. Peter sighed and tried to look somewhere else in hopes Flash would walk away.

“Ya hear about your favorite hero going AWOL? You must be pretty worried about him since you’re his intern huh?”

“Just leave us alone man!” Ned started.

“Go screw yourself fatty, I’m talking to Penis here.” 

He pushed Ned in the face, knocking him backward a little. Peter tensed with anger. It was one thing having Flash bully him, but another thing when he was mean to his friends.

“What the hell do you want from me, Flash?”

Flash looked him right in the eyes.

“To call you out on your bullshit.”

Flash got closer to Peter’s face.

“Do you really think anyone, other than your dumbass friend here, would believe YOU have an internship with Tony Stark?!”

“I don’t care who believes me and who doesn’t, it’s the truth.”

Flash started strutting around like he was the coolest guy in the room. 

“Oh please, why would Tony Stark care about some worthless kid with no parents?”

Peter stood up.

“Alright, you’ve made your point okay?! Can you just leave us alone?”

Peter was getting very angry. He tried to breathe deeply to calm himself down. He didn’t want to give Flash the satisfaction of seeing him upset.

“Cuz you’re just making up lies to make your life seem better after your uncle bit the dust! The truth is you’re just some loser and Tony Stark has no idea who you are, and even if he did, he wouldn’t care cuz he’s got his own life to deal with!”

Peter froze. His entire face felt hot. He was pretty sure he was as red as his suit by now. He balled his hands into fists. Flash was still looking right into his eyes. There was now a crowd of other students watching the argument. Peter met Flash’s gaze. Was he amused? Peter wanted to kick his ass for talking about Uncle Ben that way, but he had to keep his cool. He couldn’t lose it in front of everyone just because Flash was trying to get under his skin.

“Whatever you say man.” Peter said calmly.

“I mean, why would he care about you? He doesn’t care about anyone else. That’s why he ran off and made it seem like he ‘went missing’. What a joke! As if anything bad could happen to Iron Man! He’s probably off screwing around with some other chick.”

Peter couldn’t take it anymore. He wasn’t going to stand there and let him say these horrible things about Tony. He was yelling now.

“He wouldn’t do that! Tony’s the most caring person I’ve ever met, and something bad happened to him!”

Flash was yelling back.

“OH GIVE ME A BREAK! You’ve never met Tony Stark! You’re not his intern! He doesn’t give a shit about you! Stop pretending that you’re so important! You’re not! You’re just some random idiot with dead parents, a dead uncle, and nothing special about you whatsoever!”

“Shut up!” Peter screamed back. 

The students watching the scene all collectively went ‘oooo’. Some were recording and others were snickering. Ned was pushed to the back of the crowd and couldn’t reach Peter.

Flash pushed Peter back with both hands.

“No YOU shut up! You can’t just go around lying just to make yourself relevant! You’re nothing, you always have been and you always will be! And you can forget about Tony Stark ever caring about you, Penis.“

“I said SHUT UP!”

The tension was now at its highest. Even the air around them seemed to be spiked with anger. The crowd watched excitedly. 

“Why should I? I’m right you know, and I’m most likely right about Tony faking his disappearance to run away. Cuz if I’m wrong and something bad DID happen to him, then whoever did it would have to be really powerful! Like, who could effectively fight off an Iron Man suit? Which means he’d have been KILLED. You hear me? Your idol is either somewhere with a fake name, sipping a Piña Colada on the beach with a new girlfriend, or DEAD. You understand that Peni—“ 

Before Flash could finish, Peter swung his fist and punched Flash square in the face. His super strength knocked the bully so far back that he hit the wall with a loud thud. The wall now had cracks in it. Flash was now on the ground groaning in pain with a nose gushing out blood. Peter knew he would get in trouble for this, but he was too angry to care.

“My name is Peter.” He said through gritted teeth.

The crowd around them went wild. A bunch of kids were clapping and whooping, while others were chanting ‘FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT’. One girl who was recording put her phone camera in his face and yelled.

“YEAH PARKER!!!”

Peter gave a deadly glare to the girl and she backed away, and stopped recording. She deleted the video and shakily put her phone away. A voice suddenly came out of nowhere and immediately cut through the noise of the crowd.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!” Shouted Principal Morita.

The crowd immediately went silent. The students backed away to reveal Peter standing with a bloodied fist in front of Flash trembling on the ground with a bleeding, broken nose. Principal Morita sighed. 

“Alright, I want everyone to return to your tables and keep eating your lunch. I’m going to have your teachers talk to each of you about this. And please delete any footage you have recorded. Flash, Ms.Zyman will take you to the nurse.”

Ms.Zyman walked over and helped Flash up. They left the cafeteria and began walking down the hallway to the nurse.

“Mr.Parker, my office. Now.” He commanded. His tone carried a grave urgency to it.

This was it. Peter knew he was in hot water now. Peter was already on the Principal’s bad side after running away from the decathlon competition in D.C., then leaving detention afterwards. He was probably going to get expelled now. Peter kept his head down and didn’t speak the entire walk to to the Principal’s office. They were about to walk through the door when Ned approached Principal Morita.

“U-um excuse me? Principal Morita?”

“What is it Mr.Leeds?” He snapped.

“Well, I…..”

“Yes?” He said impatiently.

“Okay look, I know what you just saw looked really bad, but please let me explain what happened. I witnessed the whole thing, it wasn’t entirely Peter’s fault.”

“Let me hear Mr.Parker’s side of the story first, then I’ll get to you.”

Ned nodded and sat down in one of the the waiting chairs next to his office door. Principal Morita opened the door and motioned for Peter to come in. Peter shamefully walked inside and Principal Morita followed him. They were now both sitting across from each other at his desk.

“Alright, spill.”

Peter meekly told the principal what had happened exactly how he remembered it. He didn’t say anything. He sat there listening with a concentrated look on his face. Peter finished and the principal finally spoke.

“I’m going to speak to your friend now. I’m also going to call your aunt about the situation. Please wait outside the door.”

“Yes sir.”

Peter walked out and Ned got up and walked in. He gave Peter a slight smile as he walked in. Peter’s heart was racing. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen to him. But he was grateful that Ned was trying to help him out. 

 

——————————-

 

After talking with Ned, Principal Morita called Aunt May. She ended up having to come to the school. Peter felt guilty. She probably had to leave work for this. After talking with May, the Principal called Peter into his office. He had a stern talk with Peter about controlling his impulses and telling a trusted adult if someone was bullying him. In the end, Peter was to be suspended for two weeks and the same with Flash since he instigated the altercation. Peter returned home with May. He expected her to be mad. He apologized profusely for making her leave work and for what he did. He tried to explain himself but May stopped him. She had already heard exactly what happened. May was unexpectedly understanding. After she heard what Flash had said to Peter and considered the circumstances, she wasn’t upset with Peter. She said she probably would've punched him too. She told him she would let this one slide for now but he better not do anything like that again. Peter was relieved but still angry and embarrassed about the situation. He decided to go out on patrol to blow off some steam. While he was swinging around, he passed by the OSCORP building. Or…..what was left of it. There was a huge chunk of the building missing from the explosion. The area was surrounded by police tape to keep people out. Peter could hear some voices from inside the building, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Why are there people still in there? He thought.

“Karen I need to hear what they’re saying.”

“Activating Enhanced Reconnaissance mode.”

Peter could now hear the conversation. Karen zoomed in on the area they were in and used thermal sensors to show a silhouette of the two men inside. They seemed like members of that gang of thugs that stormed the place a couple weeks ago. Peter listened closely.

“You really think they did it?”

Did what? And who’s they? He wondered.

“Positive. I’m telling ya, this Project X stuff is getting crazy. They’ve taken other people already and used em’ up. Hopefully there’s still some remains of the experiments left.”

“Yeah, if we can get in on this, imagine the kinda money we could make!”

They stopped to look around in the remains of the laboratory. Peter was now intrigued. He remembered the thugs talking about Project X but forgot about it after he woke up in the hospital. 

“Hey Karen, you’re recording this, right?”

“Yes Peter, I record everything you see. It’s part of the—“

“Yeah, I know, Baby Monitor protocol. I’m just making sure.”

Peter crawled to a different position so he could see them through a broken window. The thugs were still looking through the rubble. One of them flipped over a large piece of scorched metal that looked like it used to be some kind of cabinet and picked up a glass jar with a metal lid that was under it. The jar was filled with a strange looking green liquid. Where had Peter seen that substance before…?

“Ay! I found sometin’! I think it’s some weird chemical or some shit like that.”

“Lemme see!”

The thug grabbed the jar from his companion and opened the lid.

“Ay be careful with that, we don’t know what the hell that is.”

“Ah, you worry too much.” The man said as he waved off his friend.

Peter was sure he had seen that chemical somewhere…..he just couldn’t remember where. The thug swirled the jar around a little and sniffed the contents. His pupils enlarged and he fainted. The green liquid spilled all over the floor.

“What the hell?! Mike? Mike?! Mike!!! Ugh, I told ya not to mess with that stuff!”

The man sighed. He picked up Mike and swung him over his shoulder then left the building. Once they were gone, Peter leaped through the window to take a closer look at the chemical. He began thinking out loud to himself.

“Hmm...those guys were saying something about taking people and ‘using them up’. And that it was part of Project X. Apparently this green stuff also has something to do with it. None of this can be good.”

He picked up the jar that Mike had dropped. There was still some of the clear, lime-green liquid left in it. Peter examined it closely. He gasped. Realization hit him. He had seen this chemical before! When Peter first discovered that Tony was missing, there was a large puddle of the same substance in the middle of the trashed lab. Peter was 90% sure they were the same. He had never seen anything like it before! There must be a connection between whatever this Project X thing is, and Mr.Stark’s disappearance! He thought. Peter knew what he had to do. He took out his phone and dialed a number. After a few rings, they answered.

“Mr.Parker this better be important if you’re calling me.” Agent Amari said angrily.

“Yeah, it is.”

“Well? Don’t waste my time, speak!”

“I have a lead, and it’s a big one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I really hate how long it took for me to get this one done, things keep coming up preventing me from writing and then I got a cold! Fun! Well, I’m not sick anymore thank goodness, so I’ll try to get chapter 5 out ASAP. Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! This is the first fanfiction that I have ever written and I'm still kinda new to writing fics, so any thoughts on my writing would be appreciated! Thank you for reading! :-)


End file.
